Alexandre BARLOT, journalist at Radio France, Josef EL-MAHDI, journalist at Radio Sweden, Uli KÖPPEN, journalist at Bayersicher Rundfunk, Alexaine LEROUGE, journalist at EBU, Eglantine NYSSEN, journalist at le VIF and Roularta, Carolin OLLIVIER journalist at Arte, Dr Richard FLETCHER, Director of Research at Reuteurs Institute, Vincent MERTHIER, head of the tech desk at RSF, Lavinia ROTILI, researcher at UCLouvain, Charlotte VAN BREUSEGEM, researcher at UVLouvain, and Bastien REMY, policy officer on news media at European Commission.
Moderated by Philippe COUVE, founder of SAMSA.
Key issues
Two years after the generalisation of AI, how are newsrooms dealing with this technological shift? Is this only used to overcome a budget problem? Will AI really replace journalists, in this case, what about copyrights? The conference tried to answer to all this questions regarding the use of AI by the journalists with for example platforms developed by the journalists like Verific Audio to detect deepfake content, Statcheck so that the journalists have the time to analyse data: so, AI, ally or enemy?
What they said:
Lavinia Rotili (Researcher at UCLouvain): “We explore and stock before making decisions, about the choice of a local newspaper.”
Joseph El-Mahdi (journalist at Radio Sweden): “No one should wonder: is that a real human talking or a machine?”
Alexiane Lerouge (Journalist at EBU): “Do not trust A.I. too much.”
Vincent Berthier (head of the tech desk at RSF): “Journalist will not be replaced by A.I. but by someone who knows how A.I. works.”
Richard Fletcher (Director of Research at Reuteurs Institute): “A.I.-generated content, and journalism isn’t the same thing.”
Takeaways
Several points were discussed during this conference such as copyright, the ethical use of artificial intelligence, the loss and destruction of jobs, especially graphic designers since the images are generated by AI, the lack of laws governing its use: are the charters based on good faith of the editors sufficient? The conclusion of the conference is that future journalists are far from being replaced, as AI won’t be able to make reports, to have real sense and a critical mind. The most important question now is to know how to use it.
Léa Santelli (EJC)